Baseball: Arcadia Advances to Quarterfinals With Win Over Alemany

The Apaches could get used to this. Prior to this season, the team hadn’t won a playoff game in coach Nick Lemas’ four-year tenure, but Tuesday’s 5-2 victory over Alemany advances Arcadia into the Division 2 quarterfinal round Friday at Pacifica.

The Apaches jumped ahead in the second inning when Brendan Campbell led off with a single. He scored on a sacrifice fly by George Papavasiliou and Drew Klein followed with an RBI double.

The Warriors had a short leash on starting pitcher Ryan Paramo and quickly replaced him with staff ace Cody Thompson in the third inning. 

However, the first batter Thompson faced, Haram Park, tripled in a run and later scored on a groundball. Park also had a double in the game.

KJ Edson (11-1) was dominant through four innings, but got knocked around for two runs in the fifth. After allowing a man to reach base in the sixth inning, Edson was relieved by lefty Jeff Kim who got out of the jam.

“Kim hasn’t been as effective pitching to left-handed batters as we would like this year, but they had a few lefties due up and I had confidence in (Kim),” said Lemas.

Leading 4-2, Arcadia added an insurance run in the top of the seventh when Brandon Benson homered to centerfield.

“We played a solid game,” said Lemas. “We hit the ball well and played great in the field.”

Kim shut the door on the Warriors in the seventh inning to pick up his second save of the season and increase the team’s current winning streak to 13 games. 

The Apaches will travel to Garden Grove to face Pacifica in Friday’s quarterfinal game. The Mariners took second place in the Empire league with a 10-2 record and are the ninth-ranked team in Division 2.

After allowing two runs through five and 1/3 innings, Edson has four and 2/3 innings remaining on his weekly limit.

“We plan on throwing (Edson), but he probably won’t start,” said Lemas.